Chapter 346

Kwak Yeon had heard from Hyeonhae Taoist that the Supreme Patriarch had descended the mountain because of what had happened to Taoist Cheongmu.

That only strengthened his conviction that if he could uncover what Cheongmu had gone through, he would finally catch the trail of the evil energy.

The problem was that Wudang had kept the incident involving Taoist Cheongmu under absolute secrecy.

Even Uncheon Zhenren, the Sword of Wudang, had not known why the Supreme Patriarch had descended the mountain.

The faint glimmer of hope Kwak had begun to see was once again swallowed by a dense fog.

Taoist Cheongmu, the one who had actually lived through the incident, had lost every memory of his past.

The Supreme Patriarch, who knew what had happened to Cheongmu, was still missing, with no word of his whereabouts.

And Cheongmu’s master, Taoist Hyeonjin, had locked himself away inside a prison cell.

Who else might know what happened back then...?

As Kwak considered who on Mount Wudang might know about the incident, the Sect Leader naturally came to mind.

Would the Sect Leader know?

The instant the question occurred to him, Kwak realized how foolish it was.

As Wudang’s order leader, the Sect Leader naturally had to know everything of importance that happened on Mount Wudang.

Then should I go to Mount Wudang and ask the Sect Leader himself?

That thought reminded Kwak that the Sect Leader had suddenly fallen ill and had remained secluded for a long time.

And with that realization came a chilling thought about the Sect Leader’s “sudden illness.”

“...!”

He remembered that since being confined to his sickbed, the Sect Leader had not attended a single event on Mount Wudang.

That was why Grand Elder Unhak was currently exercising full authority over the Wudang Sect in the Sect Leader’s stead.

Once that occurred to him, Kwak could no longer dismiss the chill he felt as mere unease.

The Sect Leader was the order leader of Wudang. No matter how ill he might be, surely he could have shown himself briefly from time to time.

Yet the Sect Leader had not even appeared for the Grand Rite of the Primordial Heavenly Venerable, which every disciple present on the main mountain was required to attend.

There had to be another reason for such complete seclusion.

What if the Sect Leader didn’t fall ill at all... What if he was injured?

A serious wound, unlike an illness, could not be concealed if he appeared before others.

But there shouldn’t have been any way for the Sect Leader to be injured.

The Sect Leader never left Mount Wudang.

Which meant that if he truly had been wounded, it had happened within Mount Wudang itself.

For the Sect Leader to suffer an injury inside the sect grounds would have been an enormous incident, enough to throw the entire mountain into turmoil.

Even the youngest errand boys on Mount Wudang would have heard of it.

Yet Kwak had never heard so much as a whisper of such an event.

If by some chance the Sect Leader truly had been injured and they wanted to keep it secret, then shutting himself away from everyone would indeed have been the best way to do it.

But what could possibly make them need to hide the fact that the Sect Leader was injured?

If an assassin had attacked him, all of Mount Wudang should have mobilized to hunt the culprit down to the bitter end.

And naturally, they would have uncovered whoever stood behind the attack and exacted punishment in full.

Kwak was struggling to find an answer when he suddenly flinched.

What if the Sect Leader was injured because of what happened to Taoist Cheongmu...?

A possibility flashed through his mind.

CRACK!

It was as if a bolt of lightning had struck him.

The shock was several times greater than when he had heard the escorts say that the Martial Alliance had fallen.

That’s impossible!

It could never have happened.

No.

It was something that must never have happened.

Kwak despised himself merely for having conceived of such a thought.

The guilt was so intense that he could barely bring himself to look at Taoist Cheongmu.

And yet, the more his heart insisted that it could not be true, the sharper that possibility became in his mind.

The one who injured the Sect Leader was Taoist Cheongmu. That’s why the Sect Leader has never allowed anyone outside to see his injuries. They wanted to keep it absolutely secret.

One event after another, one circumstance after another, streamed through Kwak’s mind, all of them beginning to support the idea as something more than a mere hypothesis.

It fit with the fact that Taoist Hyeonjin, Cheongmu’s master and once the designated successor to the Sword of Wudang, had destroyed his own inner power and voluntarily locked himself inside a prison cell in Demon-Restraining Valley.

For a Wudang disciple to injure the Sect Leader would be the highest crime of betraying one’s master and destroying one’s lineage.

It was a crime so grave that even death by a thousand cuts would scarcely be punishment enough.

A disciple’s wrongdoing was also the master’s responsibility. And Taoist Hyeonjin may well have punished himself in the hope of sparing his disciple’s life.

That would also explain why the Supreme Patriarch and the Sect Leader had kept everything about Taoist Cheongmu absolutely secret from Uncheon Zhenren, the Sword of Wudang.

The Sword of Wudang’s duty was to uphold the righteous order of Wudang.

Had Uncheon learned the truth, he would have had no choice but to cut Taoist Cheongmu down, regardless of the reason behind what happened.

It also made perfect sense why the Supreme Patriarch had taken Taoist Cheongmu up to Samryeong Palace and entrusted him there.

The Supreme Patriarch, the Wudang Sword Sovereign who had attained the very pinnacle of martial cultivation, must have realized that the evil energy hanging over the world had seized Taoist Cheongmu and used him to injure the Sect Leader.

That was why he had hurried down the mountain to pursue the evil energy spreading across the world.

He had meant to eradicate the evil energy that had invaded Wudang and wreaked havoc there—and free Taoist Cheongmu from the terrible crime of betraying his master and destroying his lineage.

Everything now connected with terrible clarity, leading toward a single conclusion.

Even so, Kwak wanted to deny it to the very end.

But his mind, with merciless clarity, was already telling him that it was true.

Then another thought suddenly emerged and drove the final nail in.

If the evil energy hanging over the world had been capable of harming people through its own power, there would have been no need for it to seize Taoist Cheongmu’s body.

Which meant Martial Alliance Leader Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak might have suffered something similar to what had happened to the Sect Leader.

Otherwise, who in the world could possibly have faced the Martial Supreme Venerable and killed him?

The only difference was that the Sect Leader had survived with injuries, while the Martial Supreme Venerable had lost his life.

Ah...!

Kwak almost resented the sharpened insight that had come as his mastery of the Honwonmusang Technique deepened.

Because it forced him to confront truths he desperately did not want to accept.

Just as it was doing now....

Taoist Cheongmu was still completely absorbed in watching the people around him.

Kwak felt as though his heart were being torn to pieces.

Taoist Cheongmu....

A sudden thought came to him.

Perhaps Cheongmu had deliberately sunk his own mind into oblivion.

Perhaps there had been no other way for him to endure the guilt.

But even then, had he been unable to erase the memory of the evil energy that had invaded him?

No.

Perhaps Cheongmu had desperately clung to that memory and that memory alone.

Remembering the evil energy might have been terrifying and agonizing, but perhaps he had wanted to tell the world about it—to warn others of the danger.

That effort had reached Kwak.

Because of it, Kwak had discovered that the evil energy existed at all.

So he could not dismiss the possibility.

“Little Martial Uncle! They’re bringing our food.”

The serving boy was approaching with plates of steaming food.

“I hope the big beggar comes back soon. It’s been so long since we had hot food.”

Cheongmu’s eyes sparkled like a child’s as he watched the dishes being set on the table.

It’s better for Taoist Cheongmu to remain as he is now, without his memories of the past.

Kwak abandoned the thought of trying to cure him.

Restoring Cheongmu’s memories would be no different from pushing him into a living hell.

Even through the pain tearing at his chest, however, a question rose insistently in Kwak’s mind.

Why had the evil energy seized Taoist Cheongmu’s body and attacked the Sect Leader?

Even with the insight his Honwonmusang Technique had sharpened, he could not find the slightest clue to that question.

The evil energy at the heart of the conspiracy must have attacked the Martial Supreme Venerable because it sought the destruction of the Martial Alliance.

But no matter how much he considered it, he could see nothing to be gained from attacking Mount Wudang—much less its Sect Leader.

Still, the fact that the Sect Leader had been attacked made one thing clear.

The evil energy had some objective connected to Mount Wudang.

And Kwak thought that objective might prove to be an important clue to uncovering the evil energy’s true identity.

After all, the incident appeared to have occurred long before the evil energy began openly revealing itself to the world.

“Little Martial Uncle, aren’t you eating?”

Cheongmu’s question, accompanied by the audible swallow of his saliva, pulled Kwak out of his long train of thought.

“Brother Cheongmu, go ahead. I’ll eat a little later.”

After shock upon shock and so much pain, Kwak had no appetite at all.

“Ah! You’re waiting so we can eat with the big beggar when he comes back.”

Cheongmu nodded.

“Then I won’t eat either.”

“We don’t know when Brother Hu Gae will be back. You should eat first, Brother Cheongmu. You’re sick of eating dried rations every day.”

“That’s true, but....”

Cheongmu swallowed hard again before continuing.

“You’re my Little Martial Uncle. I’m your martial nephew. I can’t eat before you when you haven’t eaten. Master told me that anyone who doesn’t observe proper courtesy is worse than a beast.”

Kwak’s eyes reddened before he realized it.

“...Then I’ll eat too.”

Cheongmu’s face lit up.

“Good! Little Martial Uncle, hurry and eat first.”

With Cheongmu staring at him expectantly, Kwak had no choice but to pick up some food with his chopsticks and put it into his mouth.

CRUNCH!

Kwak instinctively chewed once—

and was struck by a tremendous shock.

He could taste the food.

Perhaps because one of his five senses had suddenly asserted itself, the sense of reality that had deserted him returned all at once.

Only then did the death of Martial Alliance Leader Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak truly become real to him.

And yet he could still taste the food in his mouth.

“....”

The Martial Supreme Venerable had saved Kwak when he had been teetering on the brink of deviation.

He had risked himself to purge the demonic qi from Kwak, and in the process had even shared a great measure of his own inner power and true qi.

More than that, he had passed on the insights accumulated over his entire lifetime, opening a path for Kwak to reach a higher realm.

They had never exchanged the formal bow of discipleship, but the Martial Supreme Venerable had been no different from another master to him.

“I intend to finish this matter with the Demonic Eight Divisions and then retire from the martial world.”

But the Martial Supreme Venerable had never been able to finish what he started.

Nor had he enjoyed even a single moment of the secluded life he had longed for.

And here Kwak was, tasting food.

Emotion surged into his throat, and he lowered his head.

He felt unbearably ashamed of himself for being able to taste food in the face of the Martial Supreme Venerable’s death.

A hot tear rolled down his cheek.

It struck the table with a soft patter.

Kwak hurriedly rose from his seat.

Cheongmu, who had already begun devouring the food, looked up at him with wide eyes.

“Little Martial Uncle, what’s wrong?”

Kwak turned away before answering.

“Keep eating. I need to use the latrine.”

“Hurry back. It won’t taste good once it gets cold.”

Kwak hurried out into the rear courtyard of the wine house and looked up at the sky.

White clouds drifted in scattered pieces across the deep blue.

Before long, both sky and clouds blurred.

He had thought looking upward might stop the tears.

Instead, more of them came.

There was now one more person he would remember whenever he looked at the sky.

Honored Elder Jang Gusam, Master Unseon, Senior Brother Hyeonin... and the Martial Supreme Venerable....

No matter how high his cultivation climbed, controlling his emotions remained difficult.

The best he could manage was not to break down and sob aloud.

How long had he stood there staring up at the sky?

“...Brother Kwak.”

Hu Gae came and stood beside him.

“So you’ve already heard about the Martial Alliance.”

Kwak silently nodded.

Hu Gae let out a low sigh.

“I spent the whole way back wondering how I was supposed to tell you. Looks like I worried for nothing.”

“....”

“I hate to say this to you right now, but mourning will have to wait.”

“...?”

“Word just reached the Beggar Clan Branch here that the campaign forces sent against the Demonic Eight Divisions are in serious trouble. The force against the Gathering Demons Division, led by the Sword of Wudang, seems to have suffered especially heavy losses.”

Kwak’s heart dropped.

He had utterly forgotten that once the center collapsed, the forces depending on it could hardly remain untouched.

Kwak wiped his eyes with his sleeve and turned around.

“Brother, tell me the rest on the way.”